This was a long awaited trip. After having pulled back
about 7-8times, it felt real frikking good to get this baby under the belt.
Mahe well, umm.. ahem is the under Pondicherry but in Kerala so it was like
paradise to us. And well Kannur is a well-known tourist destination and never
has it disappointed me until today. This was a 3 day trip, but the third day
turned out to be the busiest!

INTRO &
PLAN:

After having spent about 1 month in Baroda I returned
back to Bangalore. It was now or never, I thought to myself about Mahe.
Initially Mahe trip was planned in the month of September 2014 but was never
executed. Had tried really hard to get
this one done, but just never couldn’t. Anyway, with Madhu joining from Bangalore
and Gauti joining from Mysore we took one day leave and decided to conquer
these places.

TIME: 22:00 (7/10/2016)

ASSEMBLE
& LEAVE:

Oh yeah woke up at 04:00, did a few push-ups &
sit-ups, had a sip of coffee & was all set to go! Rode to Madhu’s place and
after waiting for 30-40mins finally the big guy woke up and asked me to wait
for some more time (hehe!). After about an hour so, mighty Madhu came down and we
left Bangalore.

TIME: 06:30

RIDE 1:
(Bangalore – Mysore – Virajpete - Mahe)

Well, this was about 350kms ride for DAY-1. It was
just as we expected – awesome! We joined Mysore road and zoomed away. The
weather was pretty cool being the post-monsoon season. We pulled over at our
regular Bidadi hotel for some yummy breakfast.

TIME: 07:00

After having belted multiple rounds we had some light
tea and left. We had told Gauti that we
would reach the Mysore by 10AM. We rode
pretty much at a decent place catching up on each other’s life and adventures
undertaken during the last month (hehe, yeah!) We pulled over at Mandya for
some tea again, called up Gauti to inform about our status.

In about an hour or so we reached Mysore. We met Gauti
and all three of us met a common friend of Gauti & Madhu. Once we left Mysore, the sun had come up and
temperatures were up. Even then we got half a bottle of juice, water and soft
drinks and pulled over near Hunsur for an hour or so.

TIME: 11:00

After the light session, we left afloat knowing it
would be a long day on the road. As we just began to enter the forest premises
the clouds came over or heads and welcomed us with light drizzle. It was a
heavenly ride, trust me on this one. The
dark thick jungle, the curvy roads, the light drizzle and us, well a light
afloat, made it a perfect package. Drifting in the woods and within we sang our
way through the forests admiring the greenery. Just around Kerala border we
decided to pull over at Kerala restaurant to belt in on some authentic fish
curry and boiled rice.

TIME: 13:30

Once we entered the Kerala border the drizzle intensified,
with some heavy lunch in our tummies we felt like buffalos. Come what may, we
keep riding was the slogan we had in mind. The twisty curves of the dense
forest were a joy to execute. Finally we eneded up at Irrity and asking
further direction we proceeded towards Mahe.

The roads narrowed down, humidity increased and the
road became dense with traffic. Once we
spotted the Arabian Sea, we yelled at the top of our lungs and almost bumped
into the guy in front of us. Having watched all the Malayalam movies it was
good to hear words pleasant/unpleasant, we were in not position to understand/judge. After proceeding south towards thallessary
another 15kms down we entered Mahe.

TIME: 16:30

MAHE:

Mahe well, what can I say about this place. A small
town, of about 3.5km radius in Kerala, but a part of Pondicherry. And as
expected and seen a few years back nothing had changed. For every 5 liquor shops
you can find a grocery shop :P Haha!

We searched for good hotels, but couldn’t find one as
there was annual celebrations of the Mahe Church. We managed to get a cheap
hotel but hey, who cares! We freshened
up and decided to walk to the Mahe beach for the sunset on the west coast.

Watching the sun go down on the Arabian sea with all
the boats as the witness was a spectacular sight. We spent some time at the
light house and decided to return to the town which was in full of carnival
lights. Roaming in the streets of Mahe amidst the crowd and songs, we picked up
a couple of bottles and headed back to the hotel.

At about 11PM we realised that we had forgotten to get
food, so went out and got some fish fry, chilly chicken, rice, peas curry,
omlets from a road side shop at reasonable price. And boy was it yummy! We
belted and listened to Madhu’s stories and then Gauti continued with his and
last turn was mine hehe!

TIME: 02:30

DAY 2: (Roaming
Mahe!)

As usual, any guesses who rose first? Haha, me! Got up
at around 4AM and finished of the left over kottu. Madhu got up once in between
and started swearing at me (not the ideal scene to get up to) Haha! Gauti rose
and we both went out for a morning walk to get a feel of the town. We loafed around
and managed to find a pretty good hotel (French Avenue). Headed back and woke
up Madhu and asked him to get ready. We shifted to the new hotel once Madhu got
ready. Finishing our breakfast we decided to head south.

TIME: 10:00

SARGAALAYA-
KERALA ARTS & CRAFTS VILLAGE:

Situated about 20kms south Mahe is this amazing place
for people who appreciate the cultural heritage that comes along with this
beautiful state. Spread across 20acres this beautiful and clean place has
various segments where skilled artists work on their skill areas and give a few
tips here and there for visitors interested. Their works can be purchased at
the place itself. Arts and business is blended in the right proportion at this
place. Few of the art forms demonstrated at this place are weaving sarees,
painting (all sorts), bamboo art, coconut art, music, wall hangings, hand bags,
and so many more. We proudly bought a few coconut pendants (went well with these
beaches right?!)

TIME: 12:00

KUNJALI
MARAKKAR MUSEUM & BACKWATERS:

When enquired about places near-by we were pointed at
this museum. Kunjalli Marakkar was a fierce warrior who put up a valiant fight
against the Portuguese over trading rights. A person offered us to guide
through the museum and the amount of passion with which he was explaining we
just listened like kids. (in between I asked a stupid question, “Saar, Kuniyali
Marakar is team who supported Portugal ah?) He almost got enraged:P.

Having a splendid tour of the museum, we went a few kilometres
towards to west to find ourselves in place where three backwaters met the
ocean. Beautiful place it was, with hardly any people around.

TIME: 13:00

SANDBANKS:

Alright, good progress for the day we thought and
headed towards Vadakara. Asking locals for a good hotel around, we pulled over
for some lunch. In Kerala, one point to remember is they usually under cook the
meat. So think twice before you order chicken.

After a heavy lunch, we reached the sandbanks. It
looked pretty similar to Kappad beach. The tourism department had done well in
establishing beautiful walkways, sit outs and other facilities in this stretch
of the sea. We loafed around, caught a few star fishes and basked in the sun.

TIME: 15:00

After having spent good time, we had some ice creams
as it turned pretty hot. Then we decided to ride back and chill out at the
hotel.

MAHE NIGHT 2:

We reached back pretty early and purchased the
required and decided to walk around the town the carnival was still alive. Lots
of people walking around and all the glitters haha, felt good and weird. We
went fuelled up our bikes as we had decided to leave early the next day. Bought
back dinner packed to the hotel and sat down. The second night went on till 1AM
or so before we cleared and crashed.

TIME: 01:00

DAY 2: (Kannur
& To Bangalore!)

We rose early and got ready. We left the hotel by
07:30 and headed north. On the way our tummies began to growl so we pulled over
for some yummy Kerala breakfast.

MUZHAPPILANGAD
DRIVE IN BEACH:

This is one of the must visit places in this region.
It stretches for about 5.5km and is rated as one top 5 beaches for driving. It
was no doubt a pure thrill to on the sands with waves crashing into your bike.
The atmosphere of this place was also relaxed.

TIME: 08:00

KANNUR:

Travelling up north for another 15km we reached Kannur.
And I had stayed here for about 15days during 2013 so kind of remembered all
the places well. Without much enquiring we proceeded to the following places:

1. Baby
Beach: Small stretch of waters which can be viewed from
top. We sat here for 15mins or so and decided to move on.

2. Payamballam
Beach: This is a little commercial beach with lot of high
rise buildings around. We loafed around this beach for some time.

3. St.Angleo
Fort: Well, this was the main target of the day. Built in
the early 1500’s by French this amazingly beautiful fort I assure you will
never disappoint. The high risen fort
wall with cannons, made the perfect defence for naval attacks. We just sat on
the fort wall and looked into the seas for quite some time. The distant ships
looked so nice. Already
running a few hours late we decided it was time to hit the road back to Bangalore.

This was about 350kms ride back and it was a good one.
As we left Kannur we asked people for directions and we proceeded towards
Irrity. As entered the forests it began to drizzle. Few hours into the ride the
drizzle turned into light showers and it made riding bliss. We pushed on
through towards the border to pull over at a hotel for some snacks and tea.

Wow Incident:
As the ride was in full swing, Madhu showed me a range of mountain shrouded in
mist I was so awestruck that my jaws fell down and as I had begun to say “Wwaaaaaaa”
I realised I had almost gone off the road. Looked at Madhu and we started
fighting again haha:P

Riding trust me in the forest in the showers turned
out be tricky as well with the mental bus drivers. Once we entered back into
Karnataka we rode peacefully admiring the misty mountain afar to reach
Gonikoppal for some well-deserved heavy lunch.

TIME: 14:00

The lunch turned out to be little too heavy for the kilometres
left for the day. But we cruised along at a decent pace to reach hunsur as
well. About 30mins before Mysore and major
accident had taken place just then and the villagers had blocked the entire
road and were protesting. Long jam prevailed and we took a call to enter into
the villages and find an alternate route through the country roads. It worked
out pretty well and we made it back to the main road and then to Mysore.
Thanked Gauti for joining us and spent some time talking on the by-pass road
and then decided it was best we head back.

TIME: 17:00

The ride from Mysore to Bangalore was straight-forward
150kms. But with our physical condition and the sun going down we made sure we
took regular stops and after dropping back Madhu I reached home :)

TIME: 20:00

CONCLUSION:

“What must be done;
should be done. Yeah, it was a super-man feeling after having completed this
run. I was dancing around the next few days enjoying as though I’ve won the
battle against the God of Flops haha! And Kerala, well, she earned a special place
in my heart and the next 2 months watched atleast 4 Malayalam movies per week :P”